Hybrid IT strategies are the new normal, according to new research by IDG Connect and commissioned by INTERXION HOLDING NV (NYSE: INXN), a leading European provider of cloud and carrier-neutral data centre services. IDG Connect surveyed 625 IT decision-makers in midsize and large enterprises across Europe about their current IT set-up and their mid- to long-term infrastructure plans.
The research shows that today’s reality as well as the mid- to long-term future in terms of preferred infrastructure strategies will be hybrid, ie a multi-sourced solution of on-premise data centres and off-premise public and private clouds. 45% of enterprises are already running hybrid IT solutions.
50% of respondents are running private cloud environments and 38% are using public cloud services, while 51% of respondents indicate that they expect to move more workloads to public cloud within the next 5 years. However, on-premise data centres are expected to remain a highly significant component of the way enterprises manage their mission-critical, sensitive data, whether managed internally or by a service provider, at 53%.
The research also shows that high levels of connectivity between these disparate compute resources would be a catalyst for further migration to the cloud. The key barriers to further cloud adoption by enterprises are concerns about security (53%) and network performance (47%). Interestingly, respondents replied that they would more than double the workloads run in the cloud, an increase from 24% to 42%, if these challenges were overcome. Already, 41% of respondents intend to bypass the Internet and opt for enterprise-grade solutions, connecting to the cloud via a WAN connection or direct connect solution.
“This research demonstrates to us that enterprises are already well into their cloud adoption journeys, and that the next wave of cloud migration is around the corner,” said Ian McVey, Interxion’s Director for Enterprise and Systems Integrators Segments. “The number of enterprises using direct connect services will further accelerate cloud adoption. All of this only confirms that the new IT reality is hybrid.”
